Edit June 2017: There has been a lot of traffic to this page of late. Please note that the information here is THREE YEARS OLD.

I took a trip over to The Mesh Project (The Shops) last eve. I heard there were free mesh bodies there. Free is good. We like free. Gratis is also a very powerful marketing tool. Score one for smartness.

The project is listed as being in beta. The very high contrast minimalist white room is striking. It took me a little while to figure out I needed to go to the workroom to find the free body parts (body, feet, hands). Bare, low and mid high feet are available from you STYLING HUD (an integral part of the process.) You seemingly buy vouchers for shopping, no direct sales. Not too sure how I feel about that part of the equation. If things get to the Marketplace that system won't apply of course; but maybe the plan is NOT to join the Marketplace -- an interesting thought in itself. There is a Terms Of Service that you need to OK in order to shop. I of course READ it :D.

I spent a fair amount of time getting the body to look as much "like me" as I could. While there are many skin tones available in the hud, there was nothing the least bit close to my everyday skin. I found the closest body color to it I could and then went looking in my inventory for a possible close match in skin.

You can of course buy a mesh head but I am kinda fond of the me that has been with me for six and a half years. It does look like "tinting" may be in the works and that would be a big help. A blender layer might also be needed. I am guessing you could make your own if you have some basic skills: I may try that. Meanwhile I have a collar on! [Later note: thanks to a reader I found the blender tattoos for the head. They helped some but I still really need to wear a choker :D There is also a slight transparent seam when I wear my legacy avatar head. ]

I did a lot of testing and my general feeling is that this is a very nice mesh body. I tried the popular "now no longer available" mesh body demo a month or so ago. I found some very obvious seams and further investigation halted. This body is nice and smooth with what looks like materials for sublte skin glow. Nope. A quick test showed me that this looks just as good without advanced lighting on. A plus!

There are a few problem areas (beta remember). There is an area in the lower back that breaks out on many poses. Happily a lot of the typical default avatar problem pose areas are greatly improved. My thinking is that this body is easier to use if you are a light skinned gal. The palms of the hands are noticeable too light compared to tan skin, at least in my estimation. I suspect that lighter skin has no issues.

I couldn't get my calves all that shapely. You need to have 0 body fat if you are using your regular head, but getting my buttocks and bust down to my normal size (lowering the sliders from my normal shape was necessary) was easy enough. I do think there are possibilities here.

There is a very nice free (donation) dress with color change hud as well as shoes (you'll need to by the mid high feet for those). And that leads me to the best news. The dress fit perfectly to MY body shape. Photos in the shop suggest it would fit as well on my alt who is a chubby gal (I'll get her over to try that soon). Imagine garments really fitting! Many do for me, but I know that isn't the case for everyone.

Lots of folks have been waiting for Avatar 2.0 to appear. Since Ebbe announced a couple of days ago that The Lab is currently working on a whole new platform (a year or two in the future for an unveiling date) it is very unlikely that we will see that happen. Energies will no doubt (and reportedly are already) going to the new closed platform world. For better or worse it looks like we won't be getting tons of official support. But after all that is what all our great content creators provide.

Other mesh bodies are in the works too I hear. If wearable bodies become popular it will be a whole new clothing world. There will of course be room for the current products. Not everyone is going to want to give up their very expensive wardrobes.

There is a future coming round the bend. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

I have retro neck on and so did my friends. Didn't work for me even with the free gradient blender thingie. Alas. If you don't have retro neck on -- it doesn't fit at ALL - LOL so easy to know. Thanks though. A thought.